Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1887-11-27
IN FORMER Days
Some "reminiscences Of a Belmont County,
Ohio, Farmer.
HI TELLS OF The DAYS OF DROVERS
And How They Used to Conduct Their Stock
to the Markets.
4 SOURCE OF REVENUE TO FARMERS.

was much Interested in the reminis-
cences Of old Citizen in last Sundays
REGISTER, said "a Belmont county farm
er to a reporter a day or two ago. His story
started me to thinking over the old times,
and / recalled particularly some incidents
of the cattle-dealers and drovers who used
to come through Wheeling half a century
or so age, On their way to the eastern mar
ket at Baltimore. These drovers used to
gather up their stock away out in the Mi
ami Valley and down in Kentucky, and
they sometimes Travelled a thousand miles
with their animals before they disposed Of
them. The drovers were a queer set, and
there were some among them who were not
above suspicion.
THE cattle drovers invariably had one
hundred head with them, but sometimes
they would have two hundred to four hun
dTed head of hogs behind tho cattle. In
charge Of 49, - thran extra men u they
had cattle alone, there would be but two
men, besides the owners of the drove.
These men would be paid so much for the
trip. One of the two always walked at the
head of the drove, leading an OK, and call
ing out regularly and monotonously: So
o-okeen 'So-o.okeep in a voice which
COULD BE HEARD FOR A MILE.
The second man walked at the rear of the
drove, to keep the strsgglers closed up,
while the boss exercised a general SUI
pervision, and rode on ahead as even
ing approached to make arrangements for
feeding and stopping for the night. Some
times these droyes would be so thick as to
be hardly out of sight Of each other. In
wet weather the drovers would stick to the
pike, but in dry weather they would take
a side road, which was not so hard on their
feet as the macadamized pike, and would
in such cases strike the river down at Dill
lies Bottom.
"Along in the afternoon the owner Of
the drove would ride on ahead to hunt a
stopping place Tor the night. He would
ride up TO a farm house about where he
thought the drove would reach by dark,
and would call out the owner. A CONVEX
sation about like this would then ensue:
GIVE got some cattle coming along the
road, and want to stay all night
"'What do you want to feed?'
"'Shock corn. Got any to spare?'
Guess so. How many shocks do you
WANT"
CHOW many hills are there in a shock?'
Hundred
The drover would then figure out how
many hundred hill shocks he would need,
and after going out to the field and look
ing at the corn, a price would be agreed
D The farmer wonld then hitch up
his team and
THE DESIGN ATED NUMBER OF SHOCKS
would be hauled to a pasture field and
spread out on the ground. BY this time
the cattle would have arrived and would
be turned in. The hogs, if the drover had
any, would not he IN until ab0ut
ten o'clock at night, they
travelling 80 much slower than the cattle.
Their coming would be heralded by the
drover's cries of 'su-bo.Oyn 'su-bo.oy!'
By this time the cattle would be done
feeding and woul be lying down, and
the hogs would be turned in to clean up
what loose corr remained on the ground.
'tIf the farmer had no shock corn, u
bargain would he made for sheet oats for
feed, or in lieu of that, corn in the ear.
The cattle drovers of those times invaria.
bly, rode q little horse not much bigger
than n sheep, and they seemed to 90 on a
perpetual pace. The drover carried q big
whip, like the Mexican quirt, with a stock
about two feet long and q lash Of three
or four yards, but this whip was very sell
dom put to use. In those days the drov-
ers found none of the system Of drafts
&c, which now obviate the carrying Of large
sums of money, and he was forced TO lug
his cash, partly in paper and partly in
silver, and aggregating from $4,000 70
Sc, 900 or $1,000, in a pair of saddle-bags.
His whip was generally his only weapon OF
defense, but he was seldom molested.
THE sheep drovers generally had one
thousand in a flock. They usually travel
ed in the summer, and if any sheep Of the
farmers along the pike CHANGED to stray
into the road, woe to 'em. They were
SWALLOWED UP AND LOST
in a moment in the big drove, and the
drover was that much ahead. / have heard
of drovers who would start from Columbus
with five hundred sheep, and have one
thousand by the time they. got into Balti-
more. These men were known as pirates.
A farmers only safety wa to mark his in
itials on his sheep with lamp black, and
keep a bright lookout. Ear marks were
no good, for the pirate drover would mark
o few of his own sheep in every possible
way before he started on bis trip. But the
drover did not always augment his drove
in this way. Frequently he would lose his
entire flock in crossing the mountains,
through their eating the mountain laurel,
which is q deadly poison to sheep.
1.-THE mule and horse drivers came clear
from Kentucky. The mules were gener-
ally driven loose, the same as cattle. There
would be a leader with q bell on him, and
the rest would follow along like 80 many
sheep.
There would seldom be more than
thirty or forty horses in one lot, with one
to every six horses. He would ride
one, have two by his side, and three behind
hin. l have, however, seen another
method used. A lead horse would be har-
messed to a ~siDgle-tree, and q rope would
lead from this back twenty or twenty-five
yards to a rear horse. Then the drove
would be tied to this rope in pairs, one on
each side.
But the drovers have been gone for
many O long day." said the agriculturist,
land with him a large source Of reveRRe to
the pike-side farmer"